This entry is soooo late. Around the same time last month I went on a trip to Macau and Hong Kong but i failed to write about it for some odd reason. But here it is now. (sorry Jen)
To some people, going abroad always meant looking for a job and living there. But not for me, my trip was pure leisure. I wanted to get away from it all, work, people from work, boys, work, and the stress they’re all giving me. So I went to this trip with my college friends who I only see once a month, if our schedule permits and if we’re lucky enough. My sisters joined in too, and some of my friend’s officemates. Arriving at Macau Airport I noticed that most of the workers didn’t look Chinese at all. They looked kind of Filipino, but I wasn’t so sure, and I just had to feed my curiosity.
So on the way down from the plane I noticed the passengers were falling in line in an orderly fashion, perfect. Being pasaway and all, I stopped and waited for my friends to get out of the plane causing the line to break, that’s when the guard approached me and said “Ma’am bawal maghintay dyan, dun po tayo sa loob.” I was so amazed that I blurted out “Aha!! Si kuya Pinoy!!” I know, so jologs, he just smiled. We got out of the airport, hailed a cab, told him the name of the hotel and he took us there. At one point, my friends had a goal, and that was to try looking for work while sight seeing. But the moment we arrived at our hotel and relaxed in the Jacuzzi, their minds changed as quick as one could say Disneyland. “Forget about work, we’re here to relax!!” From then on, we wanted to travel across Asia every chance we get, no matter how busy we are, it was a deal, we were now travel buddies. 
Lots of plans took shape as to our next destination that we forgot our plans for this trip. So after exploring the hotel facilities and stealing the complementary shampoos and soaps we headed out for dinner. Macau is a small place, about the size of Makati, I think. So we got around on foot, taking cabs would be expensive. Outside our hotel were jewelry stores, watch stores, money changers, restaurants and clothing lines. It felt like walking around Binondo, minus the dirt and trash. We ate at a place that was packed with people, which means their food is great. True enough, the food was rich in flavor, and the menu was different from the usual Chinese restaurants you see. They had fried pork chop or fried chicken on top of noodle soup and the serving was for two people. After eating, we walked around a bit.
There were a lot of hotels and casinos that’s why it was called Asia’s Vegas.
Each hotel or casino had their own thing, like water fountains or bright lights playing with your eyes, to entertain the people (and lure them in). We didn’t gamble though, we just went casino hoping checking out the interiors of each hotel and casino. Macau’s night life is indeed great, but we wanted to see what it looked like by day so with tired feet we headed back to the hotel.
The next day we went to the ruins of St. Paul which is a church that got burned I believe and now it serves as a tourist spot. Macau’s culture is a mixture of Chinese and Portuguese, for they were once colonized by them. You can see it in the structure of the buildings and the churches.
Overall, Macau was amazing. What’s even more surprising was the fact that everywhere we went there were Filipinos so it was easy to look for the places we wanted to go to. You dont even need a map! We went to this street where all the stores sold Pinoy stuff and they have internet shops as well. We had our 1-day visa processed so we could go to China’s border gate and go shopping. On our last night we went to the fisherman’s wharf for dinner, this is also a must see when you go to Macau. They have casinos there too, but mostly they have restaurants and shops.
After spending 2 days in Macau we took a ferry to go to Hong Kong, but I will have to create a separate entry for that.
